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Ammar film festival closes in Tehran, honors Behrouz Afkhami
The closing event was held at Bahman Cinema in the Iranian capital on January 29, attended by filmmakers, jurors and families of those killed in past conflicts, ILNA reported.
Afkhami, a prominent director and former lawmaker, was honored for his career and for his latest feature ‘The Morning of The Execution,’ which also received a festival citation.
Hossein Shahrabi Farahani, a space scientist and the subject of the documentary ‘Hope in Space’, said international cooperation was possible despite US sanctions.
He said his team had signed a satellite-related contract with Russia, calling it “the riskiest government contract in Iran’s space history”, and added that sanctions had not altered his path. “If someone wants to work, sanctions are just an excuse,” he said, adding that a message broadcast from a satellite during the festival was that “the United States can do nothing”.
Shahrabi Farahani later received the People’s Independence Award from the family of the late nuclear scientist Fereydoun Abbasi.
Afkhami urged young filmmakers to focus on documentaries and docudramas, warning that cinema would become “increasingly artificial” with the spread of artificial intelligence. “For lasting cinema, one must think about documentary and low-budget filmmaking, which allows more production,” he said.
Among the festival’s main awards, the top Lantern prize in the cultural war documentary section went to ‘Everything, Forever’ by Mohammad Hassan Yadegari. ‘Not a Dream,’ directed by Amir Mazloumi and Mohammad Mehdi Ayoubi, won the Lantern in the Iranian Dream documentary category. In the historical and social documentary section, the Lantern was awarded to ‘standing by the Thames’ by Seyed Mostafa Mousavi-Tabar.
In fiction, ‘Chocolate VI’ by Mehdi Mirqiasi won the Lantern for best feature film, while ‘Tears of the Reedbed’ by Mehdi Jafari received an honorable mention. Afkhami’s ‘The Morning of The Execution’ was singled out for special recognition.
Founded in 2010, the Ammar Popular Film Festival focuses on documentaries and narrative films centered on revolutionary, social and resistance themes. The 16th edition was held under the slogan “The civilizational battle of Islamic Iran against the barbaric West”.